Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE:

And Rosta scripsit:

> 1a. My family were arguing with each other.
> 1b. My family was arguing with each other.
>
> 2a. My family were behaving themselves.
> 2b. My family was behaving themselves.
> 2c. My family was behaving itself.
All of these make me feel funny, but I have to think about them
further.  My knee-jerk reaction is that they are ungrammatical
but acceptable.

Which reminds me of a favorite line from a novel:  "No, it are
that we am going at Athens".  Which is said by a hispanophone
Norwegian with strong L2 English who is speaking ungrammatical
Classical Greek.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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